In the title story—written in a lonely hotel room in Geneva soon after the author began his work with the United Nations—a young Indian orphan is on his way to visit America for the first time, and his anguish and longing in the airplane seem hardly different from those of any American child. Tharoor’s admiration for P. G. Wodehouse makes “How Bobby Chatterjee Turned to Drink” a delightful homage, while “The Temple Thief,” “The Simple Man,” and “The Political Murder” bring to mind O. Henry and Maupassant. His three college stories, “Friends,” “The Pyre,” and “The Professor’s Daughter,” are full of youthful high jinks, naïve infatuations, and ingenious wordplay. “The Solitude of the Short-Story Writer” is a smart, self-aware, Woody Allen-esque exploration of a writer’s conflicted relationship with his psychiatrist.

    Pure Drivel is a collection of pieces, most of them written for the New Yorker, that demonstrate Martin's playful way with words and his unerring ability to create a feeling of serendipitous improvisation even on the printed page. Here's a passage from a piece that announces a shortage of periods in the Times Roman font: "Most vulnerable are writers who work in short, choppy sentences," said a spokesperson for Times Roman, who continued, "We are trying to remedy the situation and have suggested alternatives, like umlauts, since we have plenty of umlauts--and, in fact, have more umlauts than we could possibly use in a lifetime! Don't forget, umlauts can really spice up a page with their delicate symmetry--resting often midway in a word, letters spilling on either side--and not only indicate the pronunciation of a word but also contribute to a writer's greater glory because they're fancy, not to mention that they even look like periods, indeed, are indistinguishable from periods, and will lead casual readers to believe that the article actually contains periods!" Although some of these pieces flirted with topicality when they first appeared, Martin is most successful when he leaves the real world behind and gives his wit free rein. This collection preserves the best (so far) of his glorious improvisations. --Simon Leake

    

    He didn't expect Darlene Johnson to walk into his office with her chocolate box. And certainly didn't expect what followed. . Book One of the Detectives That Don't Fit Series.

    He has enshrined in them every kind of experience from the pangs of hunger and sex to the rapture of mystic vision. Its range includes stark realistic pictures of the material world as well as the realm of fantasy haunted by ghosts and spirits. Basheer has written on love and hate, on politicians and pickpockets, on the fancies of childhood and on the disillusionments of adult life with an intense sense of the tragedy of life and at the same time an irrepressible sense of humour.

    Hempel, fiercely admired by writers and reviewers, has a sterling reputation that is based on four very short collections of stories, roughly fifteen thousand stunning sentences, written over a period of nearly three decades. These are stories about people who make choices that seem inevitable, whose longings and misgivings evoke eternal human experience. With compassion, wit, and the acutest eye, Hempel observes the marriages, minor disasters, and moments of revelation in an uneasy America. When "Reasons to Live, " Hempel's first collection, was published in 1985, readers encountered a pitch-perfect voice in fiction and an unsettling assessment of the culture. That collection includes "San Francisco," which Alan Cheuse in "The Chicago Tribune" called "arguably the finest short story composed by any living writer." In "At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom, " her second collection, frequently compared to the work of Raymond Carver, Hempel refined and developed her unique grace and style and her unerring instinct for the moment that defines a character. Also included here, in their entirety, are the collections "Tumble Home" and "The Dog of the Marriage." As Rick Moody says of the title novella in Tumble Home, "the leap in mastery, in seriousness, and sheer literary purpose was inspiring to behold.... And yet," he continues, ""The Dog of the Marriage, " the fourth collection, is even better than the other three...a triumph, in fact." "The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel" is the perfect opportunity for readers of contemporary American fiction to catch up to one of its masters. Moody's passionate and illuminating introduction celebrates both the appeal and the importance of Hempel's work.

    Now late in his career, Savard and his teammate and best friend, Cam Carter, are trying to fulfill their boyhood dreams of winning a Stanley Cup before they retire. A surprise late-season trade pits the friends against each other in a playoff series both could lose but only one can win. Saved takes the reader into the rinks, dressing rooms, planes, buses, and hotels that are the backdrop to the long grind of an NHL season. That grind is made bearable by the likes of players such as Bruno Govoni, whose cell phone ring tone is the orgasmic moaning of a porn star Loretta (Lash) LaRue; of Phil Flipside Palmer, the only person besides the Kingsmen who knows all the words to Louie Louie or that Child of the Moon was the flipside of the Rolling Stones' Jumpin' Jack Flash; and team enforcer Kevin Quigley, who claims all his fights are retaliations, but sometimes I retaliate first. Most sports novels bring the game to the reader. Saved brings the reader to the game. Praise for Jack Falla Falla's graphic portrayal of a violent sport (and its colorful players) and his insider's view of how hockey is played, coached, and officiated is exciting, surefire entertainment. -- Publishers Weekly on Saved Literary hot chocolate that will warm your heart. ---Robert Lipsyte, The New York Times, on Home Ice The best hockey book ever. ---John Buccigross, ESPNsportscaster, on Home Ice Possibly the best hockey book since Ken Dryden's The Game, ---Toronto Globe and Mail, on Home Ice

    What starts as innocuous leching degenerates to compulsive obsession threatening to completely alter Kunal Roy's perception towards his nubile, newly married English teacher. And other women. He grows up to head one of the most advanced R&D centers in the telecom industry. But what secrets does he hide?"The English Teacher" is a short story with an evil, inconceivable twist. About The Author :Durjoy Datta is the author of six bestsellers, Of Course I Love You! (2008), Now That You’re Rich! (2009), She Broke Up, I Didn’t! (2010), Ohh Yes, I Am Single! (2011), You Were My Crush! (2011) and If It’s Not Forever (2012). He has sold of over one million copies of the six books. Durjoy Datta is one of top five highest selling authors in India (Source: AC Nielson Bookscan). He had been referred to by the Outlook India as the one of the few Indian authors who are responsible for re-shaping the Indian Publishing Industry.

    The hostage-takers threaten to shoot pilgrims every day, unless the incumbent Government accedes to their demands. With the popular Hindu festival of Diwali just around the corner and elections less than six months away, the Government at the center is under immense pressure to act. What will the Government do? The army? The intelligence agencies? The common man? No terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Who are these men? Is there a larger plot? Faced with such unprecedented events, will the country descend into unimaginable anarchy or will it rise above the issues of collective apathy and greed that have plagued it since Independence?

    When Satish offers a bribe to Jitesh, the latter abuses the industrialist and threatens to call the police. Undeterred by all this, Satish approaches Arora who is Jitesh’s senior officer and offers him a share in his business. Arora puts pressure on Jitesh to ignore certain norms and stipulations and approve the loan, but Jitesh succumbs neither to greed nor pressure. Arora and Satish turn hostile towards Jitesh. A few days later at the bank, Jitesh helps an unknown customer, who claims to be illiterate, to fill his withdrawal form. The customer is later identified as a conman who fraudulently withdraws money from someone else’s account. His arch rival Arora manipulates facts and Jitesh is named in the chargesheet. Jitesh is suspended from his job and faces a judicial inquiry that lasts for 14 long and painful years. During the long ordeal, Jitesh is flooded with offers to bribe his way out of the matter and this includes vigilance officers, bank officials, CID officers, court clerks and even the judge. Arora connives with businessmen and amasses huge wealth through underhand means. Arora ignores his family and takes to the wrong path in personal life also. What has destiny in store for him? Is he able to escape from the clutches of justice? ********************************** ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Gireesh Sharma, soldier-turned-author, writes straight from his heart. Born in 1973 in a small hamlet near Aligarh, he was brought up by his grandfather-in-law, an active political leader. It was under his tutelage that he developed patriotic fervour and on turning 17 years of age, chose to join the Indian Air Force to serve the nation. After his retirement, he worked with several youth organisations and today actively participates in socio-political activities to bring a positive change in the country. He is working as a marketing manager in a software company and enjoys writing books during his spare time. I Refused to Bribe is his first fiction, though he has written three popular non-fictions: 'Office Politics', 'How to Win the Heart of Your Wife' and 'Stay Free, Stay Happy'.http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=s...

    DC Books' catalog primarily includes books in Malayalam literature, and also children's literature, poetry, reference, biography, self-help, yoga, management titles, and foreign translations.

    Sadie’s lover calls her as he drives to meet his wife at marriage counseling. Gwen pines for her roommate, a man who will hold her hand but then tells her that her palm is sweaty. And Sasha agrees to have a drink with her married lover’s wife and then immediately regrets it. These are the women of Single, Carefree, Mellow, and in these eleven sublime stories they are grappling with unwelcome houseguests, disastrous birthday parties, needy but loyal friends, and all manner of love, secrets, and betrayal. In “Cranberry Relish” Josie’s ex—a man she met on Facebook—has a new girlfriend he found on Twitter. In “Blue Heron Bridge” Nina is more worried that the Presbyterian minister living in her garage will hear her kids swearing than about his finding out that she’s sleeping with her running partner. And in “The Rhett Butlers” a teenager loses her virginity to her history teacher and then outgrows him. In snappy, glittering prose that is both utterly hilarious and achingly poignant, Katherine Heiny chronicles the ways in which we are unfaithful to each other, both willfully and unwittingly. Maya, who appears in the title story and again in various states of love, forms the spine of this linked collection, and shows us through her moments of pleasure, loss, deceit, and kindness just how fickle the human heart can be.

    But after a minute or two, they too walked away, because looking at the two any longer became unbearable.’A woman who won’t let the shadow of death disrupt her love life, another who falls irrevocably in love with a dead police officer, a devoted wife who steps out twice a week for Narcotics Anonymous meetings, friends who should have been lovers, the woman who offers all her pent-up love to a railway announcer’s voice … Annie Zaidi’s stories are at once warm and distant, violent and gentle – and, above all, untroubled by cynicism. This is a look at love, straight in the eye, to understand the alluring nature of the beast.

    Zawartość zbioru:- Intymność- Pokój- Mur

    But he’s harboring a secret from his daughter, a love affair he’s keeping all to himself. In “A Choice of Accommodations,” a husband’s attempt to turn an old friend’s wedding into a romantic getaway weekend with his wife takes a dark, revealing turn as the party lasts deep into the night. In “Only Goodness,” a sister eager to give her younger brother the perfect childhood she never had is overwhelmed by guilt, anguish, and anger when his alcoholism threatens her family. And in “Hema and Kaushik,” a trio of linked stories—a luminous, intensely compelling elegy of life, death, love, and fate—we follow the lives of a girl and boy who, one winter, share a house in Massachusetts. They travel from innocence to experience on separate, sometimes painful paths, until destiny brings them together again years later in Rome. Unaccustomed Earth is rich with Jhumpa Lahiri’s signature gifts: exquisite prose, emotional wisdom, and subtle renderings of the most intricate workings of the heart and mind. It is a masterful, dazzling work of a writer at the peak of her powers.